Swift Biosciences Inc.

Swift Biosciences Inc.

Location: Ann Arbor

President and CEO: David Olson

Funding: $3.65 million

David Olson grew up as a nature lover, not exactly on a path to commercialize research used in the fight against cancer.

Yet that's where this entrepreneur has landed, most recently as the founder of Ann Arbor-based Swift Biosciences Inc. The company develops molecular biology reagents for research and diagnostic applications, and its technologies offer new ways to examine disease-related genes and enable tools for managing cancer.

Swift also aims to help users analyze more samples faster and at a lower price per sample, using their current instrumentation.

The company received $3.4 million in June 2010 from Houston-based venture capital firm DFJ Mercury and several Michigan-based investors. The firm operates off that funding, as well as $250,000 in 2010 stimulus funds received from the federal government.

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Olson

Olson's love of biology led him to academic training in molecular biology, where he developed a passion for commercializing life science technologies. He left a postdoctoral fellowship to found his first San Francisco Bay Area biotech startup, raising $32 million prior to acquisition.

Eventually he found his way to Ann Arbor, where he became a founding member of Accuri Cytometers Inc., which develops cell analysis instruments. That company was sold to BD Biosciences, a leader in instrumentation for research and diagnostics of immune disorders, for $205 million in 2011.

From a patient care perspective, the company has the potential to impact the diagnosis and improve clinical outcomes for some of the most deadly cancers, including colorectal and melanoma, which kill 610,000 people and 48,000 people annually, respectively.

Getting to this level of societal impact is no small task, Olson said, and financing is the easiest part.

"Money moves from bank to bank in a few seconds," he said. "VC firms on both coasts have made major investments here — they know how to find the Detroit airport."